“The future of the Earth is to die with the sun boiling up the oceans” say astronomers
Thu, Sep 13, 2007
Astronomers have discovered the first known planet to survive the “red-giant” phase - a process whereby aging stars expand and engulf its orbiting bodies. The discovery of the “gas-giant planet” three times the size of Jupiter, shows an insight into the future of our own solar system. What will happen to the Earth when the sun grows old and collapses?
The planet is some 4,500 light-years from Earth. It once orbited its star at the same distance as the Earth is now from the sun about eight light-minutes, but then subsequently drifted away.
Scientists have identified around 250 planets orbiting stars other than our sun. Most are detected by indirect measurements such as tiny variations in the “wobble” of a star.
The team found that during its time as a middle-aged star, V 391 Pegasi had a mass similar to the sun before it expanded its radius by more than 100 times when it swelled into a red-giant - something the sun is expected to do in 5 billion years.
The researchers said the planet stayed intact because the parent star lost mass, reducing its gravitational pull just enough to let the planet drift away a bit.
Scientists claim that our very own star - the Sun is around 30 percent bigger already than when it first came into being. As it gradually exhausts all its hydrogen, the star’s dimensions will continue to swell.
Astronomers predict that the processes happening on V 391 Pegasi will be replicated by the Earth in 5 billion years time. The actual “earth” ironically may survive.
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What will happen to the earth in 5 billion years | felix ker’s blog Says:
September 14th, 2007 at 5:09 pm[...] http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/?p=283 earth, future Posted by Felix Ker in Interesting Articles Share This [...]
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September 13th, 2007 at 5:56 pm
But it doesn’t matter right? Because after the sun expands, it will shrink really small, I think. And then it will get verrrry cold. But by then hopefully we will be living in other solar systems (if not galaxies). And earth will be a relic to point out in telescopes.
September 13th, 2007 at 6:18 pm
We’ll all be dead anyway!
September 14th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
Whew! At first I thought it said 5 *million* years…
September 14th, 2007 at 4:00 pm
I guess that’s not so bad, but we’ll still all be dead.
December 31st, 2007 at 4:16 am
actually i just saw on TV that in 2 BILLION years the Earth will die! So…um..don’t believe this site or those astrounauts. The TV show was The Way Earth Was Made, or something like that!! So in 2 billion years your all dead and so am I. And we’re all in a gap of an ice age to!
December 31st, 2007 at 4:17 am
And also the dinosaurs died of a meteriod!
December 31st, 2007 at 4:20 am
Well your in the middle of that gap if you live in North America. AHHHHH!!Hey…..at least 2 billion years is a long,long,longgggggggggggggg so longtime from now!!!!!!!
July 11th, 2008 at 12:54 am
NOTHING WILL HAPPEN TO THIS EARTH, BUT ONLY ALL LIFE UNDERWATER AND ON EARTH ARE AT RISK OF DEATH. THEIR IDEA IS TO COVER THE CONTINENTS WITH AS MUCH SALTWATER AS POSSIBLE, BUT I KNOW HOW TO STOP IT == http://www.socyberty.com/Activism/First-Step-for-the-Solution-to-Global-Warming.103109 THEIR INTENTIONS WERE TO USE NATURE AGAINST ALL LIFE ON EARTH. BY MELTING THE GLACIERS THEY CREATE MOVEMENT FOR THEMSELVES UNDETECTED AND STARVE OUT THE LARGE MAMMALS. WE’RE HUNTING THEIR BEAMS NOW, THAT ARE WEAKENING THE OZONE, THEY DONT KNOW THEIR INCOMING TO INHABIT EARTH IS ON A COLLISION COURSE WITH A COMET. BUT IF YOU ASTRONOMERS WOULD HELP INSTEAD OF MAKING UP STORIES, IT WOULD HELP US ALL, SO THEIR IS’NT A PANIC. WE NEED TO EXTRACT THE SANDS OF TIME AND I’D GET A SALVAGE LICENSE SO THE TREASURES YOU FIND IN THE SAND CAN BE YOURS.